Existing media systems conventionally provide a set-top box that receives television signals via a tuner. When a channel is switched, e.g., using a remote control, the set-top box tunes to the user selected channel and starts to receive video content streaming from the user selected channel. However, as the video content received from the channel that is newly switched to needs to be buffered before the content can be displayed on a television (e.g., to decode the compressed digital content to an uncompressed format for high-definition videos, to overlay closed captioning, etc.), the user usually experiences a delay when tuning to a different channel. Some existing systems may implement pre-tuning caching of the channel next to the channel that is being played such that when the user moves the channel “up” or “down,” content from the next channel can be played from the cache with a reduced delay. However, in different scenarios, when the user switches to a different channel that is not adjacent to the channel currently being played (e.g., tuning from a standard-definition local channel to a high-definition channel), or when the user switches the currently played channel to playback a high-definition movie that is previously stored in a digital video recorder (DVR), existing system is usually unprepared for the newly switched video content. The user may experience non-negligible delays during the switch, which could yield an unsatisfactory user viewing experience.